Special Senses
by Risque Tendencies
Summary: This is a short story collection based on the Pokemon Adventures Manga. Various characters and/or pairings. So far: Silver&Gold, Crys&Suicune&Eusine.
1. Pari passu

**Title:** Pari passu

**Prompt/Inspiration:** _Rivals_. You can't seem to avoid them.

**Song:** "_Can't Get Away_" - Third Eye Blind.

**Characters:** Gold, Silver

**P.S.: **the title roughly translates to 'with equal steps' or 'moving together.'

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><p>.<p>

_S_

.

"Maybe I'm not understanding you," the boy added hopefully, pushing a long ebony bang out of his eyes as he spoke. His face was a semblance of denial. He was the kind of person who had always gotten everything they pursued in life, be that goal, or another person. He had a singular determination to keep his track record - a determination even the other young man had to admire. List it among the growing amount of things to admire.

This was getting to be too much. He had to bow out while he still was aloof enough from this boy to leave. With every time they met up, he was growing more and more friendly with him, for lack of a better word. And that wasn't okay. People like him didn't make friends. The only friend he had was Green, and his loyalty was solely to her. They had been through many trials together. He didn't know how he felt about being close to someone he hadn't endured similar experiences with. He sort of felt like he was replacing her. He was analyzing a lot of things that had come up lately, which meant it was time to go. Better not to even have to make the call. Just get away from him. End of story.

"I mean, I get it. You like your space. Okay, Silver, run off if you have to. But we'll be seeing each other again." Gold grinned in a mischievious way, one corner of his mouth turned up more than the other. He seemed like he was laughing on the inside when he spoke again, "You can't stop bumping into me, after all. You'll come back. Or maybe I'll find you."

His gaze was almost painful to return, then.

There was something about his surety that acted like a shot to the gut. Knowing he had no intention of meeting up with Gold again, it made it hard to keep a straight face, to not say anything. And then, on top of that... he shouldn't be having these impulses at all. Before they had met, he would have discarded another person to the past without a backwards glance, and certainly without feeling guilty.

Yet here he was.

.

_G_

.

If you had never met Gold's rival, or if you didn't know him to the extent the aforementioned did, it would be difficult to notice how oddly he was conducting himself now.

The fashion in which he was standing was the first clue. He was facing directly at Gold, looking upon him like an equal. In times past, he always seemed be turned half-way away, as if he was constantly getting ready to leave, to skulk off to the next place that benefited his goals. And then there was the way his mouth moved. He seemed to be holding back a frown, and any other time his face had been perfectly passive, unreadable. The presence of any sort of emotion was unusual.

To be honest, he looked guilty.

"I..." he began to say, but abruptly cut off. His lips formed a thin line on his face.

Turning on his heel, he started to flee the opposite direction, but there was no way Gold was letting him leave like that!

"Silver, wait up!" He started jogging to keep up with the other boy, reaching him in only a short amount of time. Inexplicably, he felt happier than he had been in a while as they began walking together down the route. After all, Silver had just told him all he needed to know without more than a single word. It seems he wasn't the only one who was none too fond of them being seperated, and the reasons why it might be that way pleased Gold.

It was true, then.

They were a bit more than rivals, just like he himself had always felt. Sure, he enjoyed battling Silver, but that wasn't the _only_ thing Gold enjoyed about whenever they met up along the way. Even just seeing Silver himself was something. Whenever they were going their own ways, he knew that his rival was on his mind, and it finally seemed like just maybe, he was on Silver's at those times, too.

Even if he skirted around the subject, Gold thought the truth was plain to see.

"Why are you following me...?" There seemed to be an unspoken "this time" lingering in the air. Silver looked sideways at him, many questions in his eyes.

Gold just smiled secretively, and placed both hands behind his head as they walked, a gesture that lent him an even more playful appearance. He let the question air out for a moment, which may or may not have been intended to make Silver sweat a little. Of course, no matter what he did, a similar result would have occurred when he did deign to answer. The implications behind it were all too true to make Silver very comfortable at hearing them.

"Because you _want_ me to follow you."

And since Gold was being nice, he neglected to make a joke about how Silver's face colored to the point where it matched his hair in the next few seconds of their journey.

Some things truly were better left unsaid.

.

.

.

**A/N: **Utter failure imo. I can't write Silver. I might not have failed at writing Gold. Either way, I must practice. Perhaps I will improve. Expect more chapters to this story, not necessarily sequels to this particular one - I'm making this a shorts collection of stories inspired by the Pokemon Adventures manga. Anyway if you care, review. Grazie mille~


	2. On Hearts, Not Marble

**Title:** On Hearts, Not Marble

**Prompt/Inspiration:** _Suddenly Suicune (Part 3)._ Slightly modified plot + endpoint, but uses some original dialogue.

**Song:** "_Make This Go On Forever_" - Snow Patrol.

**Characters:** Crystal, Suicune, and Eusine.

**P.S:** The title is from this quote - "A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble." (by Charles Spurgeon)

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><p>There had be some special brand of amnesia for times like these. She recalled that she had fallen, but so much more of those last moments before losing consciousness were blurred and inaccessible. Her legs and arms pulsed with a dull ache of soreness and she rubbed at her eyes; sitting up was a dizzy task.<p>

She registered a gasp near her side and felt another presence there as well. Turning her head to see, she acknowledged him, "Eusine!"

"You're all right!" Palpable relief colored his voice as he now hovered over her, and she found herself feeling a bit of the same. A tough situation was always easier to face when you weren't alone in facing it.

"Wh-Where am I?" she wondered. It didn't look like where she had remembered being. She was sure that she had been outside when the fall had happened.

"The top floor of the Tin Tower... inside Suicune's crystal wall."

He glanced around, and was overcome with a curious emotion as he scanned the familiar landmarks of the room. This was an old and holy place, and special for those reasons. It was a location of great impact in the story of the adversary he so dutifully and passionately tracked after for the past decade. Because of his esteem as a legendary expert, and, to be fair, perhaps a little of the reason could be attributed to his friendship with the guardian Trainer of the city, Eusine had been allowed to study the Tower on previous occasions to help with his research.

Eusine had been here, oh, innumerable times, had carefully studied every aspect he could think to glean knowledge from, but now he had the unshakeable impression he was starting back at square one.

The presence of the North Wind had only stirred up that which he thought he knew, and yet the changes were so subtle that he feared they were too intangible for him to grasp. He desired to begin anew, much as it ruined his pride to admit. Now that he had come so close, new details had surfaced and he must, by necessity, reformulate his stratagem.

"As for Suicune..." he carried the sum of his regrets in that breath, sighing as if hoping to impart them to the air and thus lose them from himself. He stared listlessly at the pale boards of the wooden floor, noting their aged, weathered quality and errantly wondered if he too, would seem so hopelessly inconsequential with the passing of time.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Crystal's mind was at work once more, and details were beginning to return to her. Despite these ruminations, she could not miss his melancholy, and as best as he might have hid it from her, from what little she knew of him, she could gather how paramount an encounter such as this would have been to him. She had been the one to live it, and he might have, had he not immediately detoured to care for her.

"It is what it is," he consoled his companion, placing one hand on her shoulder. He did not have it coded into his nature to blame others for his problems, either acute or complex.

He was too much a gentleman for her sensibilities, at least in this matter. "No, it isn't..." she refuted firmly, shrugging off his touch. "If I had something I wanted half as much as you do, I'd feel entitled to be a little disappointed. And if someone had been the cause of it, I'm afraid I would want them to take responsibility. So I am. I'm sorry, Eusine, for keeping you."

"The thing is, I understand now. I don't mean to be conceited, or anything like that, but I think that I see what you have seen. From the first time I came across Suicune I was fascinated, but there's something very different that I feel now that I have been blessed with the opportunity to _truly_ meet it. Suicune is..." her eyes brightened at the memory, the thrill it had sent coursing through her heart, and she fell off her train of speech, lost in the depths of the recollection.

"Magnificent," he finished for her, his normally cool blue eyes probing her expression and appreciatively noting the sincere emotions mirrored in them.

"Yes," she sighed. "I suppose no other word would describe it better than that."

"Well." Eusine felt the strangest conflict between the weight of the ten years he'd been searching and a new respect growing within his heart as he found the words, "Where's the fun in letting it all end so suddenly, my dear? Have faith Crys, we will see Suicune another time yet."

He ventured to embraced her again, this time with both arms. To her mute surprise he placed a kiss at her forehead. From it she drew a odd sense of comfort, the effects washing over her like water. She thought she should be embarrassed by it, but as it had happened she had had no such reservations. It felt as natural as such a thing could be.

It relieved her guilt, as he truly seemed not to be upset with her over what had transpired.

He stood after that gesture, brows knitted as he considered his next movements. Crystal, a bit dazed, sat up on her knees, eying Megaree, who seemed to be unsure of this whole atmosphere that it found itself party to. "It's okay," she told the tiny Chikorita. "We're fine. Everything's fine now." She patted the leaf that was extended to her from Megaree's head, and the little one nuzzled into the touch, happy that its Trainer seemed to be entirely well.

"I must be on my way." Eusine grinned in a charming way and flourished his cape as he swept her an old-fashioned bow. "As the game is still afoot. These past few days have been a joy, my lady."

She blushed. How many times was he going to do this to her?

"I understand," she replied shyly. "And bye."

"We'll meet again soon, my worthy rival. I bid you adieu."

She focused on her backpack as she nodded in recognition, cheeks still burning pink without her permission.

He looked over his shoulder one time before he left. "Crystal," he announced with one foot placed out the window. Her attention transferred to him as she was gathering up her gear. She waited expectantly, not very sure what this final mention might be.

"_Soon_." He smiled once more, and her breath caught.

_'Who knew a single word could sound so very...?'_

He departed after that, leaving her alone with her belongings, her Pokemon, many wonderful new things to consider, and a crystal wall that was still suspiciously intact.

**THE END.  
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**A/N:** Short, but serves as my quick practice. These three are showing up in a chaptered fic I am writing at the moment, so I wanted to make sure I was warming up enough for that since I've never written any of these characters. I have to say I find the dynamic between these two people and the legendary to be one of my favorite things in the manga. The strangest part is if you asked, it'd be hard for me to articulate just why that is. Maybe I'm just a Johto-arc-iphile. - probably true

**Check out** my Pokemon fan survey (link is in my profile near the top), and perhaps fill your own out, too! (Let me know if you do, I'd love to read others'!)


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